


Day 10: Unconscious

by Aelaer



Series: Whumptober 2019 [10]
Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: BAMF Stephen Strange, Bad Things Happen Bingo, Battle, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Hurt Stephen Strange, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Stephen Strange Bingo, Whumptober 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-19
Updated: 2019-10-19
Packaged: 2020-12-23 21:34:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21088175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aelaer/pseuds/Aelaer
Summary: The multiverse was a funny thing. For reasons that still remained unknown to Kamar-Taj, small rifts in the fabric of reality naturally appeared across the universe all the time. In the vacuum of space they repaired themselves all but instantly. On planets or moons with any sort of atmosphere, they lingered a bit longer; and on planets that had the same nitrogen- and oxygen-based atmosphere that supported carbon-based lifeforms, they could linger long enough to cause an issue.According to a sorcerer about three hundred years ago that was especially fond of numbers, statistics, and probability, it was about a two percent chance of a naturally-occurring rift to grow large enough to need a sorcerer to manually close it. Of this two percent, there was a half-percent chance of a sentient being coming through the rift, and another ten percent of that half percent of that two percent that said sentient being would be hostile.And that was just the type of day Stephen was having.





	Day 10: Unconscious

**Author's Note:**

> This scenario has been written before and written better than this (a story by phierie immediately comes to mind) but I figured that people like two cakes more than one; even if this cake is subpar in comparison, it's still cake. And it fills three prompt fills for me, so hah. Let the people eat cake. For Whumptober Day 10, Bad Things Happen Bingo's Outnumbered in a Fight, and Stephen Strange Bingo's Power With a Price.
> 
> Not Endgame compliant because the year thing always screws me up. And too many dead heroes.
> 
> Warnings: Nothing beyond your usual magical battlefield shenanigans.

It was during Stephen's first months in Kamar-Taj when he learned that if a being gave their word while in the presence of a certain sigil, they were bound by their oath. If they broke it, it genuinely would mean their destruction.

At the time, he knew the sigil worked with demonic entities, but had no idea if it worked with dimension-eaters composed of pure energy like Dormammu. Still, it became one of many spells that he practiced thousands of times while stuck in the time loop. After all, if he was going to make a bargain with the ruler of the Dark Dimension, he might as well try everything in his power to make it stick.

Luckily for him, the sigil seemed to work quite well with Dormammu, and the Dark Dimension remained away from their reality.

At least, until today.

The multiverse was a funny thing. For reasons that still remained unknown to Kamar-Taj, small rifts in the fabric of reality naturally appeared across the universe all the time. In the vacuum of space they repaired themselves all but instantly. On planets or moons with any sort of atmosphere, they lingered a bit longer; and on planets that had the same nitrogen- and oxygen-based atmosphere that supported carbon-based lifeforms, they could linger long enough to cause an issue.

According to a sorcerer about three hundred years ago that was especially fond of numbers, statistics, and probability, it was about a two percent chance of a naturally-occurring rift to grow large enough to need a sorcerer to manually close it. Of this two percent, there was a half-percent chance of a sentient being coming through the rift, and _another_ ten percent of that half percent of that two percent that said sentient being would be hostile.

And that was just the type of day Stephen was having.

It turned out that one of Earth's natural rifts, located in The Middle of Nowhere, New Hampshire, had exploded in size overnight. It also turned out that it just so happened to be a rift to the Dark Dimension. If it weren't so obviously a natural rift, Stephen would suspect Dormammu's hand in its creation.

But Dormammu kept his part of the bargain and was nowhere near the rift. Unfortunately, it seemed he may have possibly found a loophole in the binding oath that kept him to its literal word, but allowed him to toe about its intended spirit.

After his first (and hopefully only) encounter with Dormammu, Stephen had taken the time to read more about what was known about the Dark Dimension; that's when he first heard about the Mindless Ones. Whether they were originally beings of a universe Dormammu had consumed or natural denizens of his dimension was unknown, but it turned out that they managed to survive in the Dark Dimension in a way that most life did not, to the point that they were potentially a nuisance to its lord.

These Mindless Ones were named for what they were: from Earth's last encounter with them over four hundred years ago, they were described as golem-like creatures made of hard stone, about nine feet tall, lacking true sentience, seeming impervious to pain, and fully focused on destroying anything within their path. They were also described as having the ability to break a sorcerer's usual spells for shields and restraints, making them near impossible to contain and necessitating their destruction when they last came to Earth.

With how rapidly this rift had opened, Stephen suspected that while Dormammu had no hand in its creation, he very likely had drawn these Mindless Ones to it so that they might tear at it until they could slip through.

And Stephen was sure Dormammu was monitoring their progress from afar. Bastard.

With a dimensional rift such as this one, they could not conceal the battle within the Mirror Dimension, leaving them in the open fields of New Hampshire doing their best to cull the tide while making some headway into sealing the rift.

And their efforts weren't cutting it.

"We need to close the rift to have any hope of surviving this!" one of the masters shouted over the noise of battle.

"What do you think we're trying to do?" Master Grem of the London Sanctum shouted back. "We keep getting interrupted!"

Stephen had tried floating high above the Mindless Ones to work solely on sealing the rift, but it turned out that they had no issue tearing into the ground and throwing it up at him, both interrupting him and causing dangerous conditions for the other sorcerers present. So for now he worked painstakingly slow with Grem in between attacks their way even as the others did what they could to shield them when their usual shields were all but useless.

"Looks like we have reinforcements," Wong said.

Stephen looked up and he saw Iron Man and the Falcon fly in. He quickly took out the communicator the Avengers had given him a while back and jammed it into his ear. "Who's here?"

"Me, Wilson, Lang, van Dyne," Tony cited as he blasted one of creatures. It faltered, but remained upright.

"What are these things?" Scott asked.

"Mindless Ones," Stephen managed before he needed to fully concentrate to repel two of them so they did not end up smashing him into the ground. When he caught a break, he could see the four of them already in the thick of it. "Not from around here."

"Figured out that much, Doc!" Sam retorted through the earpiece.

"We don't want them getting beyond us," the sorcerer added as he avoided another one. "And they're getting harder to contain."

"I'll scout the perimeter, make sure none of them got loose," Hope said.

Even with the addition of the four Avengers, which helped cull their numbers to keep the fight manageable, the rift was ever growing and both he and Grem were unable to concentrate long enough to get any sort of meaningful process with closing it. And with every passing minute it grew larger and the number of Mindless Ones coming at a time steadily grew.

This needed to end, now. And he had a theory as how to accomplish that, but it was not something he had ever had the chance to try before.

Now was as good a time as any.

"Tony, Sam, I need you to cover me," he said as he began to ascend.

"Copy," Sam answered.

"Got it," said Tony. "Do they have projectiles?" The two of them were entirely too fast for the Mindless Ones to properly see in the sky, never mind throw things at.

Stephen, however, would be a sitting duck. He flew up to the largest part of the rift, answering, "If the ground counts as one, then yes." He then blocked out the rest of the world about him and concentrated.

Sorcerers gained their powers from other realities and planes of existence within the multiverse. These powers varied in both the strength they gave the sorcerer and the strain they placed upon their body, but generally speaking, the greater the source of power, the more it demanded upon the physical form. This cosmic balancing act made it so only those with the most determination and willpower could draw upon the most powerful of magics.

And Stephen was as stubborn as they came.

Drawing power from the Dark Dimension was considered foolhardy at its best and breaking natural law at its worst due to both what it did to the human body in the long term and the very dangerous possibility of giving Dormammu a gateway into their dimension. The Ancient One was powerful enough to block any of his attempts, while Kaecilius and his followers were, of course, attempting to prop the gates wide open. Neither of them, however, had ever considered one-time use directly from the source.

And he had the source staring right back at him. So he set himself to gather power from the multidimensional energy about them and began to pull from the direction of the rift.

At first, it didn't hurt; it was rather uncomfortable, if he had to place a word on it, like putting on clothing one or two sizes too small. More importantly, as he began to weave the energies of the Dark Dimension upon the edges of the rift to close it, it held much longer than their attempts before. But in order to close it fast enough against the Mindless Ones' constant damage, he had to increase the rate he drew in power and quicken his spell by threefold, at the least.

So he did. And as he continued to draw in more and more energy, he completely lost sight of the world about him. The uncomfortable feeling turned into a tighter and more painful sensation, but Stephen was well used to pain and knew how to endure it for necessity's sake. He pressed on, keeping a tight hold of the spell and refusing to let go as he kept the flow of energy continuous.

He started drawing upon the Cloak's innate magic as his began to falter; they were nearing the largest part of the rift and the Mindless Ones were tearing at its walls and fighting back. This was not a fight that could be won via endurance, not against their endless numbers; it had to be closed _now_. With that thought, Stephen drew upon the depths of his own inner power, supported by the Cloak's magic, and sucked the multidimensional energy out of the air in one last great spell to seal the rift in one swift move, to seal it more like a zipper than the stitching he was performing before.

The pain was excruciating. Stephen's vision went dark and he felt the rush of air about him as he passed out.

* * *

"What the hell is Strange doing?" Grem asked after destroying another Mindless One. There seemed to be no end to them.

Wong frowned. "Likely something ill-advised. It seems he at least has some cover from the Avengers." They could not dedicate a sorcerer to just serve a helping shield for Stephen; there were still too many on the ground and not enough sorcerers to defend someone in that position.

"I guess that's an improvement for him!" the other master retorted, then threw himself back into the fray.

Above, Tony blasted a projectile of rocky ground into smithereens before it could hit Stephen. He frowned at the sorcerer who, from what he could see, wasn't actually doing anything but a few gestures. "Whatever you're trying to do, you better hurry it up," he mumbled to himself.

A few minutes later, Scott said over the comm, "I think the rift's shrinking!"

Tony turned to look and he was too close to get a good eye on it. "What do you think, Sam?"

"I think Scott's right; it's starting to get smaller."

"It needs to shrink a bit faster if we want to stop these things!" Hope said, and Tony couldn't help but agree as he blasted another two of them several times until they finally crumbled. These guys were _tough_ and even he was starting to lose firepower. And from what he could see, the people on the ground could only last for so long.

Another couple minutes of fighting passed before something that sounded like the world's loudest suction cup echoed through the area. As the sound ended, the only Mindless Ones in sight were the ones still on Earth's ground; the rift to the Dark Dimension was sealed closed.

And Stephen was falling from the sky.

"Shit!" Tony said as he raced towards him, but he was too far—

Sam swooped in and caught him at about fifty feet. He grunted over the comm, but managed a, "Got him."

"Is he okay?" Scott asked.

"He's breathing. No idea what's up with the Cloak, though."

"Less talking, more finishing these things off!" Hope interrupted them, and she was right; there were still plenty of these alien rock things on the ground that needed to be killed, so Tony covered Sam and Stephen as he blasted the so-called Mindless Ones from his place in the air.

Some fifteen minutes later, the last of the Mindless Ones were dead and Tony descended with Sam, Stephen still unconscious within his arms. He carefully set the sorcerer down as several of the other sorcerers either hurried or outright portalled across the battlefield to them.

"He's alive," Sam said to them. "I didn't see anything hit him, so I'm not sure why he's out."

"That's what happens when you draw in too much power at once," Wong said as he kneeled beside Stephen, quickly writing a few runes over him. "It takes its toll upon the body. And for this one he drew from both his own body and the Cloak's magic to harness great dimensional power."

Scott's brow furrowed. "Is he gonna be okay?"

The sorcerers did not immediately answer, instead watching the symbols over his body as they slowly changed shape, but eventually one of the shifts in the symbols made Grem sigh in clear relief.

Wong's expression didn't change, but his shoulders relaxed. "It appears so. He's just exhausted himself. I don't expect him to wake up for a few hours."

"The cloak, too?" Hope asked, eyeing the red garment with a not-very-well-hidden concern.

"The cloak will recover faster," he answered, and her own stance relaxed in relief.

Tony peered Stephen over. "Does he need any medical aid? Compound's not too far away, especially with the quinjet."

Wong shook his head. "As I said, he's just exhausted himself. Thank you for the offer, though. We'll take it from here."

"Thanks for the hand, too," Grem added. "The rest'll never admit it, but it helped." The Avengers looked amused at the comment.

"Glad we were in the neighborhood," Sam said. "And tell the Doc to take better care of himself. He's a doctor and supposed to be setting a good example."

Grem snorted. "Yeah, we'll see about that." He opened up a portal to Kamar-Taj and Wong floated Stephen's body through. By the time they had closed the portal behind them, the Avengers realized that the rest of the sorcerers around them had made very quick work of disposing of the remains of the Mindless Ones and had also departed, leaving the four of them alone. If it weren't for the upturned dirt and large holes in the ground, it would appear that nothing had even happened there.

"I don't really like magic," Sam said.

"Yeah, it sucks," Tony agreed.

Scott shook his head. "You guys are definitely just jealous of them."

"What?"

"Don't be stupid."

"Methinks the gentlemen do protest too much," Hope quipped.

"Absolutely ridiculous." They continued their good-natured banter as they made their way back to the quinjet.

**Author's Note:**

> Ehhhhh definitely not my favorite but three prompt fills so there ya go. Sadly was unable to fit in a pun about the other title the Mindless Ones have earned themselves in the comics, 'Black Hole Sons', into the story. You know, with the big hole in the sky. And also the song. Yeah.
> 
> Catch my whumptober shenanigans a week earlier than AO3 at [the hellsite known as tumblr](https://aelaer.tumblr.com).


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